The subject invention relates to a wire stripper and more particularly to a wire stripper for stripping braided wire from around an electrical cable and specifically to a wire stripper for stripping wire braid from around one end of a shielded cable.
Some of the prior art teaches shielded wire stripping through use of male/female punch die sets which are designed to cut the braid so as to avoid pressure contact between the opposing cutting edges of the die. The prior art also teaches a moveable gripper to bunch the braid in an enlarged flattened donut before cutting the braid. However, in all of the known wire braid strippers of the prior art the moving gripper continues to move the wire shield during the process of cutting or closing of the die. This results in pulling the wire braid over the cutting edges of the die so that the wire braid tends to tear rather than cut and it unduly dulls the dies. Although there are many other features which distinguish this invention over the prior art, e.g. the indexing carousel to hold the opposing die set members for ease in accommodating different wire sizes, the most critical distinction is to avoid forcefully moving the braid while the die set closes. Problems with automated wire braid removal are particularly exaggerated with twisted multiple-conductor, metallic shielded, jacketed wire which is generally elliptical in cross-section and the twisted strands form a helix.
It is an object of this invention to remove the metal wire braid shielding from jacketed electrical wire with a clean cut of the braid while insuring a long life for the cutting means.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a wire braid removal apparatus which is readily adaptable, with a minimum effort, to accommodate different wire diameter sizes and readily adjustable for the length of wire braid removed from the end of the wire.
It is yet a further object of this invention to produce a semi-automatic apparatus.